BUCHANAN'S. JOURNAL OF MAN.
Many Authors



BUCHANAN'S
                           JOURNAL OF MAN.

            VOL. I.        JANUARY, 1888.        NO. 12.




CONTENTS OF JOURNAL OF MAN.


  The Pursuit of Truth
  Occultism defined
  Psychic Phenomena
  The Ancient Iberians
  The Star Dust of the Universe
  MISCELLANEOUS--Bright Literature; The Two Worlds; Foote's Health
    Monthly; Psychic Theories; Twentieth Century Science, Dawning at
    the end of the Nineteenth; Comparative Speed of Light and
    Electricity; Wonderful Photography; Wooden Cloth; The
    Phylloxera; Falling Rents; Boston Civilization; Psychic
    Blundering; Beecher's Mediumship; A Scientific Cataract;
    Obstreperous and Pragmatic Vulgarity; Hygiene; Quinine; Life and
    Death; Dorothea L. Dix; The Drift of Catholicism; Juggernaut
  The Principal Methods of Studying the Brain
  Responses of Readers--Medical Orthodoxy




THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH.


    "To be loyal to the truth is of more account than to be merely
    successful in formulating it."--_Popular Science Monthly_ for
    December.


Indeed it is; for loyalty to truth is the prior condition of success
in formulating or stating it, and that loyalty not only precedes the
special success in formulating it, but is the prior cause of
_universal success_ in its attainment. Special perceptive powers and
favorable opportunities may enable scientists to ascertain certain
truths, as a lamp may enable them to discover a few objects near them
which darkness hides from others, but loyalty to truth reveals, like
daylight, all that lies within our horizon, for it opens widely all
the avenues between the mind and universal nature, and prevents our
mental transparency from being darkened in any direction or relation.
He who has this loyalty dominant in his nature never pronounces
anything false which subsequent investigation, or the investigation by
others, proves true. He never becomes an obstacle to the spread of any
truth. He is always the first to welcome a new truth and the last to
falter in sustaining it. He is always ready to recognize the same
sincerity and fidelity in others, and to give a kindly welcome to the
labors and discoveries of other followers of truth. As brave men
readily recognize and honor each other, so do the soldiers of truth
meet in quick sympathy and cordial co-operation.

The labors, the discoveries and promulgations of such men ever become
criteria by which to test the loyalty and truthfulness of others, for,
wherever they are presented, all who live in loyalty to truth are at
once attracted and realize their harmony with the truth. As the
magnetized iron attracts the unmagnetized, so does the loyal soul
charged with truth attract all other loyal souls.

But all through human history we find that inventions, discoveries
and, above all, momentous truths uniformly fail to attract the masses,
either of the learned or the unlearned, as was illustrated in our
December number, and hence we must conclude that, in the present early
or juvenile stage of human evolution, loyalty to truth is one of the
rarest virtues of humanity.

And yet, how often do we meet in literature expressions which would
indicate that the writers were entirely loyal. They mistake loyalty to
their own self-esteem, loyalty to their own dogmatic convictions,
mental limitations, prejudices, and prepossessions for loyalty to
truth, which is a passionless, modest, lovely and noble quality.

No doubt the contemporaries of Galileo, Newton, and Harvey indulged in
the same self-gratulations. The bigot and dogmatist in all ages have
entertained no doubt of their own loyalty to truth; but it was loyalty
to their own very limited perceptions, and to their profound
conviction that all outside of their own sphere of perception was
falsehood or nonentity, and should be received with supercilious scorn
or crushing blows whenever presented.

Men's minds are thus narrowed in the base contests of selfishness,
jealousy, and fraud; but of all the demoralizing influences that
darken the mind by closing up permanently its most important inlets,
none have had such a wide-spread and far-reaching power for evil as
the false theology which demands the absolute surrender of reason to
self-evident absurdities.

Benumbed by countless centuries of superstition and passive surrender
to false education, to social influences, to pre-natal conditions, to
the terrors of law and custom, and to the lurid threats and horrors of
the imaginary drama of eternity, the mass of mankind have lost the
power of the dispassionate philosophical reasoning demanded by loyalty
to truth, and they do not know how to appreciate it when they see it.

Rebelling now against this limitation and slavery, they still carry in
their rebellion the marks of their slavery, and in their honest
agnosticism they still fail to reason fairly in loyalty to truth, and
indulge in the same dogmatism, narrowness or prejudice as when they
were slaves to priestly dogmas.

It is true that in the agnostic scientific classes there is far more
independent reasoning capacity generally than among those who dwell in
the theological limitations, but their independence has not relieved
them from the dogmatism which has so long been cultivated in the human
race by all religious systems. The dogmatism of the medical college,
and of most scientific associations, rivals that of theological
sectarianism.

The _Popular Science Monthly_, from which the above expression in
behalf of loyalty to truth was taken, is itself a striking
illustration of _disloyalty_, and rigidly confines itself to the
fashionable doctrines of the schools, excluding from its pages
whatever differs from the prevalent scientific dogmatism, and while
denouncing the dogmatism of theology, exhibiting itself a dogmatism
equally blind, unreasoning and regardless of facts. Experimental
demonstrations and scientific facts, which transcend the limits of
their arbitrary theories, receive as little attention from the
dogmatists trained in medical schools, as they would from a college of
cardinals.

The JOURNAL OF MAN, in the presentation of new truths, attracts only
the candid, loyal and progressive. It does not hope to conquer the
results of inheritance, pre-natal influence and old institutions, or
force any truth upon reluctant and disloyal minds, but it knows that
there is an important and growing class who sympathize with loyalty
and prefer the glowing future to the decaying remains of the past.

To the party of progress, this magnificent republic opens a free and
ample field. The domination of habit and transmitted dogmatism is
growing continually weaker, fading away in churches and colleges. The
pulpit of today is tolerant indeed in comparison with the pulpit of
our fathers, and the bright, free thought of the advanced people
surrounds the colleges with an atmosphere which is gradually
penetrating their walls and modifying their policy. An important duty
devolves upon every loyal, progressive thinker,--the duty of speaking
out firmly, manfully and distinctly, to swell the volume of thought
which carries mankind onward to a nobler future.




OCCULTISM DEFINED.

BY ONE WHO KNOWS.


My own claims to be considered as an exponent of true Occultism are
founded upon the following grounds: When quite young, in fact, before
I had attained my thirteenth year, I became acquainted with certain
parties who sought me out and professed a desire to observe the
somnambulic faculties for which I was then remarkable. I found my new
associates to be ladies and gentlemen, mostly persons of noble rank,
and during a period of several years, I, and many other young persons,
assisted at their sessions in the quality of somnambulists, or
mesmeric subjects. The persons I thus came into contact with were
representatives of many other countries than Great Britain. They
formed one of a number of secret societies, and all that I am
privileged to relate of them is, that they were students of the two
branches of Occultism hereafter to be described; that they claimed an
affiliation with societies derived from the ancient mysteries of
Egypt, Greece, and Judжa; that their beliefs and practices had been
concealed from the vulgar by cabalistic methods, and that though their
real origin and the purpose of their association had at times been
almost lost, it had revived, and been restored under many aspects.
They claimed that alchemy, mediжval Rosicrucianism, and modern
Freemasonry were off-shoots of the original Cabala, and that during
the past 150 years new associations had been formed, and the parties
who had introduced me into their arcanum were a society in affiliation
with many others then in existence in different countries. These
persons, deeming that the intrusion into their ranks of unprepared
minds would be injurious to the harmony necessary for their studies,
carefully avoided assuming any position of prominence in reference to
the society, so that they might never be solicited to admit those
whose presence might be prejudicial. Indeed it was one of their
leading regulations never to permit the existence of the society to be
known or the members thereof named, until they passed from earth to
the higher life. It is in virtue of this last clause that I am at
liberty to say that Lord Lytton, the Earl of Stanhope, and Lieut.
Morrison (better known as "Zadkiel"), and the author of "Art Magic,"
belonged to this society.

I should have known but little of its principles and practices, as I
was simply what I should now call a clairvoyant, sought out by the
society for my gifts in this direction, had I not, in later years,
been instructed in the fundamentals of the society by the author of
"Art Magic." When modern spiritualism dawned upon the world, for
special reasons of my own, the fellows of my society gave me an
honorary release from every obligation I had entered into with them
except in the matter of secrecy. On that point I can never be released
and never seek to be; but in respect to the statements I am about to
make, my former associates,--deeming their publication might serve to
correct some of the erroneous opinions that are put into circulation
by individuals who arrogate to themselves a knowledge, of which they
have not the slightest iota,--not only sanction, but command me to
present to the candid inquirer the following brief definition of
genuine practical


OCCULTISM--ANCIENTLY WRITTEN IN "CABALA."

OCCULTISM is a study and application of the occult, or hidden
principles and forces of the Universe, or, in its more limited sense,
of Nature.

The study of occultism is called speculative. The application of that
study is practical occultism.

Speculative occultism includes opinions and teachings, often so widely
at variance with commonly received beliefs that it would be extremely
unwise to subject it to the criticism of persons generically called
the world. Speculative occultism of course might be regarded as
_speculative only_, were it not possible by the aid of practical
occultism to demonstrate its truths.

The subjects which engage the attention of the speculative occultist
are THE CREATOR, or creative power; WORLD BUILDING, and the order and
design of the earth and its spirit spheres; MAN, and his relations to
the Creator, the earth, and his fellow-man.

DESCENT OF SPIRIT into matter, and its growth through embryotic
stages, during which period it is first _elemental_, then _animal_,
then _man_.

ASCENT OF SPIRIT out of matter, and its progress through future stages
of growth as planetary and solar spirits.

Besides these purely theoretical subjects are suggestions concerning
the best methods of communing with spiritual existences, and of
receiving information from lower and higher states than man. These,
together with _some mental exercises and practices_, form the main
themes of consideration in the colleges of speculative occultism.
Spirit Communion, together with Astronomy, Astrology, Mathematics,
Geometry, Music, Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology, and Psychometry, are
all kindred branches of study which must engage the attention of the
true occultist.


PRACTICAL OCCULTISM.

PRACTICAL OCCULTISM consists, first, of a perfect mastery of the
individual's _own spirit_. No advance whatever can be made in
acquiring power over other spirits, such as controlling the lower or
supplicating the higher, until the spirit within has acquired such
perfect mastery of itself, that it can never be moved to anger or
emotion--realizes no pleasure, cares for no pain; experiences no
mortification at insult, loss, or disappointment--in a word, subdues
every emotion that stirs common men's minds.

To arrive at this state, severe and painful as well as long continued
discipline is necessary. Having acquired this perfect _equilibrium_,
the next step is _power_. The individual must be able to wake when he
pleases and sleep when he pleases; go in spirit during bodily sleep
where he will, and visit--as well